Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for reducing a pedal effort for a vehicle, and more particularly, to an apparatus for reducing a pedal effort for a vehicle capable of reducing an effort felt by a driver at the time of manipulating a pedal and being used even in a high horsepower vehicle having a high engine output.
Description of Related Art
Generally, a manual transmission vehicle is provided with a clutch installed between a flywheel and an input shaft of a transmission and intermitting power of an engine transferred to the transmission as needed, wherein the clutch has a structure in which it is manipulated by a clutch pedal.
The clutch pedal is frequently manipulated, together with an accelerator pedal and a brake pedal, by a driver at the time of driving the vehicle. Particularly, at the time of long distance driving, an effort depending on an operation of the clutch pedal is continuously transferred to the driver to increase fatigue of the driver.
In order to solve this problem, a clutch pedal apparatus to which a turnover spring is applied has been developed. As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the turnover spring 1 includes two coil parts 1 a wound in a coil shape and has spring bushes 2 coupled to both ends thereof, the spring bushes 2 are coupled to both side portions of a pedal member 3, respectively, while penetrating through both side portions of the pedal member 3, respectively, an intermediate portion between the two coil parts la is fitted into and coupled to a catching groove 4a of a spring bracket 4, and the turnover spring 1 is installed so as to be rotatable with respect to the pedal member 3.
Here, the spring bracket 4 is coupled integrally with a hinge shaft bush 5, and the hinge shaft bush 5 is coupled integrally with a pedal 6 while penetrating through an upper end of the pedal 6, and a hinge shaft 7 penetrates through the hinge shaft bush 5 and is then fastened to the pedal member 3.
Therefore, when the pedal 6 hinges around the hinge shaft 7 (from a dotted line to a solid line) as shown in FIG. 3 by a manipulation by a driver's foot, the turnover spring 1 is compressed, and compression force is transferred to the pedal 6, such that reaction force is generated in the pedal 6 in an opposite direction to a direction of a load applied to the pedal 6. As a result, a load, that is, an effort, applied to the pedal 6 by the driver is gradually increased. In this case, the driver recognizes the reaction force transferred from the pedal 6, thereby figuring out an operation state of the pedal 6.
In addition, as soon as the turnover spring 1 is turned over from the dotted line shown in FIG. 3 to the solid line shown in FIG. 3 due to continuous rotation of the pedal 6, the reaction force of the turnover spring 1 is rapidly reduced, and the effort of the driver applied to the pedal 6 is also reduced. Therefore, fatigue of the driver is reduced at the time of operating the pedal 6 due to the reduced effort.
However, a structure of reducing the effort of the clutch pedal using the turnover spring 1 as described above has a disadvantage that component damage is often generated when the structure is used in a high horsepower vehicle having a high engine output.
That is, when a clutch disk and a flywheel are in a state in which they are connected to each other so that power of an engine may be transferred, sliding between the clutch disk and the flywheel should not be generated in order to smoothly transfer the power of the engine.
Therefore, in the case of the high horsepower vehicle having the high engine output, spring force of a diaphragm should be increased as compared with existing spring force in order to prevent the generation of the sliding between the clutch disk and the flywheel. To this end, in the structure according to the related art in which the turnover spring 1 is used, a method of increasing the spring force of the diaphragm by increasing a diameter of the turnover spring 1 has been used.
However, when the diameter of the turnover spring 1 is increased, a load is concentrated on the spring bush 2 connecting the turnover spring 1 and the pedal member 3 to each other, such that the spring bush 2 is often damaged. In addition, the diameter of the turnover spring 1 is increased, such that an initial effort is also increased, thereby increasing fatigue of the driver.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.